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Dead grandmother tale was a lie, admits Stephen Ireland

Sven-G?ran Eriksson was named as Barclays Manager of the Month for August yesterday, but his spectacular start to life at Manchester City seemed a distant memory as he was left bewildered by the “stupidity” of Stephen Ireland, who confessed to having been tangled in a web of deceit over his withdrawal from the Ireland squad in Bratislava last weekend.

Ireland admitted yesterday that he had lied to both Eriksson and Steve Staunton, the Ireland manager, when claiming that his grandmother had died. The midfield player confessed that he and his girlfriend had made up the story so he could leave the national team after their 2-2 draw away to Slovakia last weekend, thus missing the 1-0 defeat by the Czech Republic in Prague on Wednesday.